With a SoHo loft, a college-age daughter in Boston, and witty friends, art dealer Peter Harris and his wife Rebecca are admirable, enviable contemporary urbanites with every reason to be happy, in this 2010 novel by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Hours. But the arrival of Rebecca's much younger, nearly identical brother is the catalyst for Peter's mental deconstruction of everything they've worked to build together.

"Rather witty and a little outrageous ... for pure, elegant, efficient beauty, [Michael] Cunningham is astounding. He's developed this captivating narrative voice that mingles his own sharp commentary with Peter's mock-heroic despair. Half Henry James, half James Joyce, but all Cunningham, it's an irresistible performance, cerebral and campy, marked by stabbing moments of self-doubt immediately undercut by theatrical asides and humorous quips ... a cerebral, quirky reflection on the allure of phantom ideals and even, ultimately, on what a traditional marriage needs to survive."—Washington Post